Philadelphia Forward and the Reformers Roundtable are teaming up for a very cool project. They want voters to sign up at their website and create an online platform for the mayor and city council race. Using cutting edge technology, the website will actually allow users to edit the platform in real time. From now until April 3rd, anyone can log onto the site and make changes.

To learn more about this initiative, please click "Read More."

Here is the full scoop from Brett Mandal of Philadelphia Forward:

As candidates for Mayor and City Council court voters, an exciting effort hosted at http://www.reformballot.org/ will allow reformers from every corner of the city to define the principles of a reform agenda for Philadelphia. Combining the power of wikipedia with widespread growth in the Constituency for Change, an experiment in deliberative democracy launched today gives citizens the opportunity to edit, contribute, and vote on a R.E.F.O.R.M. Agenda for Philadelphia.

By using http://www.reformballot.org/, WE will be able to collectively articulate what it means to be a reformer and then we will be able to judge from their responses, which candidates are for reform. Most important, this reform platform will be drafted and established not in some star chamber, but in an open dialogue with citizens made possible by modern communications technology. WE will suggest elements for the reform agenda. WE will edit the reform agenda. WE will vote on the final form of the reform agenda. Finally, WE will determine which candidates are reformers.

The Reformers' Roundtable has drafted the broad brushstrokes of this work in the form of a R.E.F.O.R.M. Compact (see blue box) that focuses on principles that affect how decisions are made in Philadelphia and how the public participates in those decisions. Once you sign the R.E.F.O.R.M. Compact, you can help author and edit the R.E.F.O.R.M. Agenda for Philadelphia. Reformers should visit
www.reformballot.org to review the action steps proposed by the Reformers' Roundtable, to make any edits, and to suggest alternate actions.

From today until April 3rd, the reform agenda will exist in "wiki" form on http://www.reformballot.org/ so visitors can make changes instantly as they can in wikipedia. After April 3rd, all reformers who have signed onto the R.E.F.O.R.M. Compact will be able to vote on the principles comprising the final R.E.F.O.R.M. Agenda that will be presented to candidates for Mayor and City Council on April 15th for their consideration. Finally, on May 1st, we will unveil the candidates' responses so Philadelphians can understand who is for reform ? and who is not.

There is a reform impulse in Philadelphia today. Philadelphians believe the city is moving in the wrong direction and citizens in every neighborhood are frustrated with a culture of corruption that has government focused on the needs of the special interests instead of the public good. Visit www.reformballot.org today to help transform the reform impulse into a reform movement that can truly move Philadelphia forward!

As far as I know, this is the first time anything like this has been done. I have no idea what kind of platform the process will produce, but it will be interesting none the less. To be clear, this isn't a platform that will be endorsed by Young Philly Politics, but I hope many people who are part of this community will participate. Check it out!